


Not a Drop of Doubt

by Lightheaded_Dullahan



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: ABO, M/M, Parental test
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2019-11-14 19:22:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18058538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightheaded_Dullahan/pseuds/Lightheaded_Dullahan
Summary: So D8ONO and I started talking about those DNA parental test, I looked into it, and that resulted in us having ideas for stories. That’s why this exists.That’s literally the only reason.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing, I still don't know how to write ABO.

_“What! How on earth is he not my child!”_

_“That’s what the test said.”_

_“That’s absurd! Who else could be his father?”_

_“Personally, I always thought it was Dominic.”_

_“No one asked you Maria!”_

Karna popped more popcorn into his mouth. This season for the sitcom had taken a weird turn. Halfway through the season, they decided to make a plotline of the son not belonging to the father. It was a strange decision. The last two seasons were mostly about how the wife was reforming from her originally dangerous life with the help of her new husband and the friend group, why make this a plotline if she’s done her best to reform? Arjuna looked up from his laptop before returning to his work. He only watched it when Karna did, he wasn’t that big of a fan of the show. 

“You think it’s because of those DNA parental tests that are blowing up?”

“Maybe. It wouldn’t be the first show to pick up on a trend to boost ratings.”

“Ah, can I get some more popcorn?”

Arjuna raised an eyebrow, asking why he couldn’t get it himself. The kitchen was only ten steps away and Karna was perfectly able to move around. With the flattest face he had ever seen on Karna, he was told ‘because I’m carrying your baby’. They held each other gaze for a moment before Arjuna rolled his eyes and shook his head in defeat. He got up and took the bowl, playfully flicking Karna on the forehead as he left the living room. 

When he returned with a full bowl, he found his partner had taken up the entire couch. Karna has stretched himself out so the only open spots were armrests. With the smuggest look on his face at that. That sneaky bastard.

“Well then, I guess you aren’t getting any popcorn.”

At the pouting response– honestly, a grown man pouting like a five-year-old, Arjuna made his way over to the couch after Karna lifted himself up until there was room to sit. Smirking at his victory, he sat himself comfortably down before he felt Karna lay his lead on his lap. 

Now he was stuck. 

Silently realizing his victory was a farce, Arjuna’s head dropped as he passed the bowl to Karna and returned his computer to his lap. Karna ate his popcorn and returned to his show, now the friends were divided on if the wife cheated or not. He didn’t know what to think of the friends that thought she did, they didn’t have any proof she had been unfaithful besides that test. 

“What are you typing?”

“A time table of your pregnancy.”

“What? Why?”

“Something seemed off to me so I’m keeping track.”

Ah yes, Karna and Arjuna only spent a day and a half of his heat together because Arjuna had to go out of town for a conference. The very last day he was so out of it he didn’t even remember coming home for the last day because he had a local meeting that afternoon and could stay for a few hours at home. That night he fell asleep the moment he hit the pillow. 

He likely overworked himself as he couldn’t remember any of the previous day all that well. Arjuna wanted to stay home but pushed himself back to work as per the usual schedule. Karna made sure to make his favorite meal when he returned home, which brightened his day almost immediately. 

“What’s strange about it?”

“We spent a day together but your heat still went on. According to what the doctor said, it should have stopped once they conceived.”

“That’s not unusual. Plenty of women don’t know they’re pregnant because their period doesn’t go away for a few cycles. Omegas report the same thing sometimes.”

Arjuna hummed in agreement but continued typing. Karma listened to it more than the show. Pushing himself up, he leaned his head on his husband’s shoulder. 

“We can get a test done when the baby is born if you’re that suspicious.”

“I’m not suspicious. I just...this is how I cope with new things okay?”

“It might calm your worries. It’s not good when you’re stressed.”

The man was still. He let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. He didn’t want to doubt Karna. He really didn’t. That sort of paranoia could ruin relationships.

But, if he said yes, would he be doubting Karna? Would that put a strain on their relationship? It wasn’t perfect, no it never was going to be. They both were too competitive for that. But they didn’t need this in addition to it. 

“It won’t make me mad if you say you want to. It’s just to make sure.” 

“...How much is it?”

 

Nitya babbled in the little tongue that belonged to a baby, he was bounced on his father’s leg as he looked through the morning paper. Arjuna was only skimming the articles, he was waiting for Karna to get back from an errand. In the morning mail was the results from the lab. Karna had gone out to put their clothes in the laundromat, seeing as their washer had broken the night before. 

The front door opened. Karna, with an empty foldable basket, stepped into the house and sat at the table. Arjuna passed off their son to him, the baby happy to be held by his other parent. There was a moment of silence between the adults before Arjuna reached for the letter.

_Probability of Parent: **99.9%**_

A sigh of relief he didn’t think he was holding left Arjuna. Karna had a similar look of relief. That was the most accurate percentage they could give for proving the person was the father. 

“I never doubted you, I just wanted you to know that.”

“I knew.”

Nitya was cooing, wanting his parents' attention. Arjuna picked him up from Karna’s arms and tickled him. The baby let out squeals of delight, eliciting a smile from both Karna and the tickler. That smile turned into a flat face when Arjuna looked at him with a particular light in his eye.

“It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been able to go and do horseback archery. I’m not giving it up again so soon.”

Now it was Arjuna’s turn to pout like a five-year-old.

 

“Kekeke, so you’re at two already hm?”

Black took a swing from his drink. Arjuna didn’t like to associate with his twin, he was everything he hated. But, it was a family party. And they always had to be at least civil with one another. Polite conversation was apart of that. 

“Yes, his name is Swarna.”

“Ah really? That’s a nice name. I should send a gift or something, shouldn’t I?”

“You don’t have to.” _Please, do not send anything._

“Well, guess I can just give this back then. Maybe that counts as a gift.”

Dropped in his hands was a spare key. A spare house key. A spare house key Arjuna never gave to Black. Never in a million years would he do that. Not only that but, it looked like the one that had gone missing just around the time he left for his trip during Karna’s heat. 

Staring at him with a baffled expression, Arjuna couldn’t help but notice the gleam in Black’s eyes.

“I borrowed it just in case I wanted to drop by. I’m going to be out of the country for a bit though, so I might as well give it back now.”

“Why—“

“I heard after Nitya was born you had a DNA Test. Are you doing the same for Swarna?”

“No. There’s no need to.”

Black nodded in agreement. Saying something along the lines of ‘there’s no reason to doubt his husband’s faithfulness after all’. He looked over towards Karna, who was holding Swarna in his arms as Nitya stayed huddled near his leg. Black leaned in close to Arjuna. 

“You know, those test can’t detect one thing.”

“What-?”

“Identical twins are exactly the same genetically after all.”

As something clicks in Arjuna’s head his twin walks away. There’s no way he was suggesting what he thought he was, was he? No, there was no way he had done something like that. Black began to walk away before turning around, his voice still quiet enough for only Arjuna to hear. 

“I think I’ve gotten good at impersonating you. Karna couldn’t tell the difference.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to 'why I shan't be allowed to do these things'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was longer than expected

“I’m telling the truth! He really did bring that in!”

“It’s too early for you to be lying already.”

“Shut up Nitya!”

“Language.”

“Dad!”

Arjuna looked up from the newspaper, a piece of toast halfway to his mouth. He froze awkwardly realizing he had to settle the argument this time. Karna had been called in early at his job, so damage control fell onto him this morning. There was always a way this went.

“It’s not good to lie Swarna.”

“Why don’t you ever believe me!”

“Your lies are too impractical. What kind of 1st grader brings in a skull?”

“You can’t use words I don’t understand!”

“Not my fault you don’t do crossword puzzles dummy.”

Swarna’s fists didn’t do much against Nitya. The fourth grader was bigger than him and Swarna barely had any strength to use against him. Their father sighed, leaving his still uneaten toast alone on the plate to break the brothers up. Pushing the two away from one another, Arjuna flicked them both on the forehead and sent them off to finish getting ready for school. 

Just as he sat down to finish his breakfast, the shrill childish scream mixed with loud laughter bellowed throughout the house. Swarna was yelling about whatever Nitya had done to tease him this time. Arjuna put his head in his hands as the poor piece of toast that would never be eaten at this rate stared at him from the plate on the table. He missed when they were babies, they were never this much trouble when they were that age. 

 

Nitya looked up from his book as the familiar hand of his father pulled down the hardcover. With a childish huff, the boy tried to finish his page. This proved unsuccessful as his father simply pulled the book out of his hands with a chuckle. At the protest, Nitya was told after three calls he should have been finishing up. Swarna was already in the car, apparently, he was exhausted after dealing with a certain friend of his.

Swarna was taking up most of the back seat, so the older boy got to sit up front. He put his bag in the back with his brother and buckled himself in. Arjuna pulled out from the school’s parking lot and began the drive home. The usual back and forth of asking how the day went as Nitya watched the houses pass by. 

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Hmm, curry.”

“Didn’t we have that yesterday?”

“I want curry.”

Arjuna chuckled and shook his head. Nitya fell into his thoughts as the houses became nothing more than background scenery. His thought stopped when he noticed something. They didn’t have this many houses in their neighborhood. A normal argument would be he just hadn’t been out all that often. And yet- he knew for certain this was too many houses. Was his dad just taking a different route? It wasn’t unusual. Sometimes his parents would take weird turns and a thirty-minute drive would turn into a 3-hour trip home. 

Something felt off about it though. Too smooth, too casual for being one of those rides. What was happening? This didn’t seem like a surprise trip anywhere. His stomach was doing flips. Nitya looked back to where Swarna was. 

And then it set in.

Swarna wasn’t back there. His bag wasn’t back there. He wasn’t sure who was driving, but it couldn’t be his dad. He would never leave one of them behind at the school. Nitya tried to keep his face calm as the car was pulled into the garage. The door closed down behind them when Nitya noticed. The rearview mirror wasn’t directed at the back. Whoever this doppelganger of his dad was, they were watching him the whole time. He knew Nitya had figured it out. 

“Eh? What’s with that look on your face?”

 

“What do you think of this one?”

“Teagan please, I want to sleep tonight.”

“It’s just a baby skeleton.”

“That’s even worse!”

Swarna let out a shaky side as he friend put away the skeleton into a bag. He really only had him and Nitya to call friends. Enkara was a scary kid with an even scarier dad, and both had a fashion sense that made him question their life choices. It was likely sad his only two friends close to his age were his older brother and the kid who brought the creepiest stuff in. Speaking of which, where was his brother? Teagan had dragged him off to the bathroom to make him try out some Japanese urban legend he had read about. When he returned, Nitya was no longer at the table. 

Teagan poked his cheek- it was more like a jab with his sharp fingers. He pointed at Swarna’s parents who were talking to one of the caretakers. Nitya wasn’t with them. His dad looked uncharacteristically terrified as the caretaker words began to slow down. As if she suddenly realized something. Swarna really wasn’t sure what was happening as he was rushed out to the car. It wasn’t the one dad had driven that morning.

 

Nitya was absolutely terrified. This doppelganger- his father’s own twin for crying out loud, sat across from him in the living room. The causal smirk was undeniably uncomfortable to see. It was like a tiger looking down on a meal it was about to eat. He looked as if he was taking far too much enjoyment in the situation. As if this was some sort of game. 

“My dad will call the police, they’ll find me and arrest you.”

“Kekeke,” The laugh echoed in his ears, “That’s stupid. Why would I call the police to arrest myself.”

“Wha...what?”

“Did they not tell you? Well, they probably think he’s still the father.”

“What are you saying!”

“Oh, that’s no way to talk to your father.”

The smirk on the man’s face is more than enough to make Nitya want to disappear into the couch. He wanted to go home, to curl up under his sheets to make the monsters go away. He couldn’t though. Nitya was stuck with his uncle, claiming to be his father. It didn’t make sense to him. His parents were his parents, and therefore his dad was his dad. This guy was just weird. He had to be.

“Do you not believe me?”

“You can’t be my dad. My dad is my dad.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Black pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. He held it out for the boy to take it. The first few times he rejected it, the man didn’t seem too bothered. Likely seeing it as just some stubborn kid. After a few more, however, he grew impatient and unfolded it himself and read it allowed. 

“Probability of Black and Nitya parentage; 99.9%. The science doesn’t lie Nitya.”

“You could have faked that!”

“No point in faking something that’s true now is there?”

The man gets up and sits next to him, pulling him close with the arm closest to him. Nitya tenses up as the man scrolls through the pictures on his phone. It’s not hidden, in fact, it’s on full view for Nitya to see. It pictures of his family. In their house. Just normal innocent family time that was taken from locations that made it seem so creepy. 

Dinner, being read to sleep, doing homework, playing games, all of it was there. Nitya was horrified. He had been in their house. He had been taking these pictures for who knows how long. He could have taken him or Swarna at any time. 

The disturbing album tour was cut short by the phone ringing. Someone is trying to call Black. By the look on his face, it was who he wanted to call him. 

“Hell-o Juna. Quite a random time to be calling don’t you think?”

“Your son? But Swarna’s with you.”

“Aha, you meant Nitya? But I’m pretty sure he’s mine.”

“Tch. Always having the ruin the fun?”

“I’d suggest you hurry then, maybe he’ll want to stay if you take any longer.”

The call is ended and Nitya is pulled up from the couch. His bag is tossed to him with little care with what’s in it. He’s lead outside onto the steps as a car pulls up. Arjuna practically runs at them, even from the stairs Nitya can see his exacerbated expression. Black leans down to whisper something that sends a chill down Nitya’s spine.

“If they end up not wanting you anymore, you can always stay with uncle Black.”

Nitya met his dad halfway as he sprinted down the steps.

 

He stays in his room even when dinner is ready. Hiding under his sheets. Nitya didn’t want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to wake up from the nightmare. That guy couldn’t be his dad. He had to be lying. He was a creep. Nitya couldn’t accept his dad being a creep. It couldn’t be him. His dad was Arjuna. Right?

His door opens and the bed dips down. Nitya peeks from under the blanket. It’s his dad. Or, at least who he thought was his dad. 

“He told you that story didn’t you?”

“...He was lying right?”

“If the tests are any indication then yes. Even then, I don’t need to test to know who my kid is.”

“...If it was true...would you send me away?”

Nitya feels himself getting hoisted up by his father. His head rests against the adult’s chest as he is hugged. A part of him dreads the answer. Another part hopes.

“No. No matter what, you’re still my child. Nothing will ever change that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Guess who got Teagan in first D8ONO~~
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> ~~yes i am taking this as a victory you can't stop me~~


	3. A Birthday Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The television played the live New Years Ball Drop in Times Square. It had already dropped and the kids had been ushered to bed. Nitya had complained he wanted to stay up, which Swarna tried to help with. Unfortunately, the kid’s internal clock made him fall asleep the moment the clock hit midnight_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you’re happy with this D8ONO

The television played the live New Years Ball Drop in Times Square. It had already dropped and the kids had been ushered to bed. Nitya had complained he wanted to stay up, which Swarna tried to help with. Unfortunately, the kid’s internal clock made him fall asleep the moment the clock hit midnight. Despite Nitya’s best efforts, he fell asleep just a little bit afterward. Arjuna draped a blanket over himself and Karna. The other man snugged closer as the tv was turned down to be background noise. Karna intertwined their fingers together and brought it up from under the blanket for a faint kiss. His husband smiled and shook his head, leaning in close to peck the man on the cheek. 

“Aha, guess we don’t need to turn up the heat for you tonight.”

“It has been a year, hasn't it?”

“...Wait.”

Karna chuckled and rested his head on the other’s shoulder. Arjuna’s brows furrowed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was not ready for any ‘New Years’ jokes already. Especially not joking around with that. He let out a sigh and a small laugh, kissing the crown of Karna’s head. The joke was horrible, but worse had been told by both of them. The sound of the floorboards creaking alerted the two of them. Arjuna leaned his head atop Karna’s to watch whatever was on the television now until one of them decided to say something about the person behind them.

“Nitya, is something wrong?”

The boy walked up to sit between them. Arjuna lifted the blanket so Nitya could be under the cover and between them. He was curled up closer to Karna, the two men gave each other a look. Arjuna pulled off his ring under the blanket and nudged his son’s shoulder. The boy felt the inside of the ring, handing it back and sitting between both of them. He linked his arms with theirs and pulled them closer to himself.

“I had a nightmare.”

“Him again?”

“You didn’t pick me up...I was stuck there.”

Arjuna pulled his son closer to himself, which made Karna lean atop Nitya with his arm stuck with his son’s. He laid an arm around the boy, effectively caging him between the two of them. Nitya was reassured it was just a nightmare and that he wouldn’t be taken away and left there. It was a constant reassurance from both his parents that eventually lulled him to sleep. Karna drifted off soon after, leaving Arjuna to have two people effectively atop of him on the couch. He let out a sigh and leaned back to go to sleep. Hopefully, Swarna wouldn’t have a nightmare tonight either, the couch was getting small. 

 

Swarna looked over at his older brother who was glaring at the cold, open air. It had been colder than usual that day, and the older boy had forgotten his scarf. Actually, it was less forgotten and more chose not to take it. His glare intensified when a strong breeze of cold air flew into his face. His coat didn’t have a collar tall enough for him to pull it around his neck. The younger of the two could already tell he’s not going to let this go, even if it was his fault in the first place. He took off his own scarf and handed it to Nitya. The 5th grader paused but accepted it. When another cold breeze blew through them, the elder of the two hugged the younger one closer. He grumbled something about how dumb Swarna was for giving up his scarf as he wrapped the scarf around them both. 

“Hey, Swarna!”

Teagan ran up beside the two with a bag in hand. A bag that would never fail to create a feeling of dread in Swarna’s stomach. Nitya looked over to see what was in the bag. It looked like a bloody knife in an evidence bag.

“Cool knife.”

“Thank you, Nitya. I convinced my dad to let me use it for show-n-tell. As long as I don’t take it out, the evidence is still viable in court.”

“What kind of case was it?”

“A woman stabbed her children to death. All three of them. Pure rage killing, blood was everywhere and the kids were nearly decapitated.”

“YOU’RE BOTH HORRIBLE!”

 

Nitya unwrapped another present. It was from one of his uncles, he thinks it's one of the younger ones. It was a moleskine notebook. The boy hugged the notebook close to his chest, this was the kind of notebook he had been asking for. He carefully put in down atop his other gifts, a smile gracing his face as he patted it. Swarna rolled his eyes at his brother’s antics, seriously, he was getting way too excited about something like that. 

He took a large bite out his cake, the sweet icing mixed with the dark chocolate cake tasted wonderful. If he could, he would savor it forever. Karna shoved a piece of it into Arjuna’s mouth when he tried to scold Nitya for eating so sloppily. The man held the spoon threateningly in case his husband wanted to try again. It was the kid’s birthday, he could wait to scold him tomorrow. Arjuna ate his cake in silence, watching the other’s spoon. That was going to end up taking out his eye if he wasn’t careful. Swarna happily stole a piece from Nitya’s cake, considering it as payback for what he did earlier that day. 

That night, Swarna convinced Nitya to ask their dad for a bedtime story. Arjuna had little in terms of books he could read for both of them. Nitya preferred darker stories than Swarna- something Karna mentioned offhandedly could be contributing to his nightmares, and found Swarna’s happier books to be too ‘unrealistic’. Arjuna was a little worried the 11-year-old was thinking that sort of stuff already. Even he didn’t go through such a phase until he was a teenager. Maybe he was doing it early to get it over with. It soon became apparent the reason for the bedtime story was something Teagan had told Swarna at the party. Something about a scary ghost that ate your toes. 

When they settled on a story, Swarna crawled under the blankets of Nitya’s bed and poked his head out as Arjuna began to read. Nitya had to move around in his bed a few times to accommodate the other body in it. Swarna was going through a growth spurt and was closer to Nitya’s size than he was the year before. The boy suddenly perked up and pulled something out from under Nitya’s pillow.

“What is it?”

“I saw dad put it there earlier. He said it was a surprise for you.”

Nitya opened up the box to find a picture inside. It looked to be of a couple months prior, the New Year decorations were still up. It was taken at around 2 am by the time stamp the camera had made. It was Nitya and his parents asleep on the couch. Taken from something that had stood behind the couch. 

He looked up for some sort of reaction from his dad to say it was a joke. But his dad just looked confused. When he saw the picture Nitya turned over, the blood was draining from his face. Despite his eyes clearly showing panic, he calmly told them to get to their father. They were going to sleep at a friend’s house that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kuroojisan will get proper screen time soon


	4. Screentime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Black dug his hand into the bag of chips as he scrolled through Arjuna’s page. As time had gone on, he had to find better and better ways to stalk social media. He had been blocked at first, easily enough going offline to read the feed. Then Arjuna had made his page private. Easy enough to make a fake account to follow him. Then he started blocking his other accounts. Black could always make more, so to make things more difficult Arjuna stopped tagging. Karna had followed suit with the same system. Nitya’s account- it didn’t even use his real name, followed the same system. Information that could be used to find locations or anything of the like was removed and never shown again in the feed. All of these precautions, however, were not enough to stop Black._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont think i made Black creepy enough

Black dug his hand into the bag of chips as he scrolled through Arjuna’s page. As time had gone on, he had to find better and better ways to stalk social media. He had been blocked at first, easily enough going offline to read the feed. Then Arjuna had made his page private. Easy enough to make a fake account to follow him. Then he started blocking his other accounts. Black could always make more, so to make things more difficult Arjuna stopped tagging. Karna had followed suit with the same system. Nitya’s account- it didn’t even use his real name, followed the same system. Information that could be used to find locations or anything of the like was removed and never shown again in the feed. All of these precautions, however, were not enough to stop Black.

The man could easily figure out where his son was, even with so little information online available. Even at his age, he had already become a somewhat popular writer. Finding a fan hyping up a public appearance wasn’t difficult to find at all. Nor was the location. He already had the next one marked on a calendar, after all, it was important to keep up with his son’s activities. Right now though, he was looking for something else. Arjuna was most certainly paranoid at the moment. He was barely posting anything that could be traced to his family or work or friends. 

Well, he could look at Karna’s page instead. His posts were far more sparse. Anything useful was even more so. At this point, even that wouldn’t hinder Black. Stalking someone for over sixteen years certainly made figuring out where they were disturbingly easy. Today was Wednesday, which meant Karna would go to lunch at around 12:50. He would be going with that boss of his, one of his and Arjuna’s cousins on the paternal side, as per usual. If Black wanted to do anything he would have roughly two minutes when Karna was separated from the man. That was in the building as they were headed down to walk to the restaurant. Karna would take a minute to shut down and another minute to get to the elevator. He would have to somehow distract the boss to get Karna alone. Not to mention he would have to get him out of the building with no one noticing as well. If he could distract the boss outside the office, it would be far easier in comparison. Or- he could make it even easier for himself. 

 

 

The company phone rang out as Karna picked it up the answer. Normally he wouldn’t man the phones but the usual worker had left for maternity leave the day before. Duryodhana had assigned him to the job temporarily until the intern was trained. 

“Hello, thank you for calling Kauravas Inc front desk, how may I help you?”

“Hell-O Karna.”

Karna felt his entire body go cold in an instant.

“Black.”

There’s a chuckle from the other end.

“What do you want?”

“I’d like you to meet with me. To discuss my son.”

“No.”

“Kekeke. Are you sure you want to answer so rashly?”

“Stay away from—“

“It’s lunchtime at school, isn’t it?”

“...What.”

“Swarna is eating lunch, isn’t he? With that friend of his. Teagan right? They’re sitting outside.”

“Are you watching them?”

“Do you realize how easily I could take him? I know more than enough to pretend to be Juna. Though, you’re already very aware of that, aren’t you?”

“...What do you want, Krishn?”

“We’re going to discuss my son, head out of the building and we’ll go from there.”

The other man hung up, leaving Karna with a void of sound coming from the phone. He put it back to the receiver silently. He got up from the desk and made his way out of the office. If Black wanted to play this game, Karna would begrudgingly play around if it meant keeping him away from his children. The elevator dinged as it stopped and opened up. The financial head stepped into the elevator, turning to tap the ground floor button. It’s already pressed.

“It’s wonderful to see you again, Karna.”

Black is on the other end of the elevator. Hidden to make himself invisible to anyone walking into the elevator. He walked over and placed a hand on Karna’s shoulder. Karna felt his fingers grow cold as if he was freezing. Black pushed his body against the financial head’s back, wrapping his arms around the pale man’s shoulders. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be reasonable.” The hard squeeze of his shoulders told Karna otherwise. 

The arms encasing him slowly released as the descent of the elevator felt like a slide through molasses. Karna felt frozen as he stared at the electronic screen above the buttons. 7, 6, 5, 4, every number was a cold stab into his head. He was trapped with a constrictor that refused to release him until any and all life was squeezed out of him like some sort of toddler crushing an empty juice box to get the remaining liquid out. 

The screen flashed 1 but the elevator didn’t stop. They weren’t going out the front door. Karna felt something press up against his nose and mouth. He grabbed at the hand, pulling at the arm and fingers to get it off. There was a punch to his lower back, making him gasp out as the hand pressed harder. The fabric between the hand and his face was clearly soaked in something. The numbness was spreading quicker and quicker as his body fought to get any air. The flashing numbers were fading in and out of sight, the pitch-black darkness was suffocating. His struggle was harder and harder to keep up. Karna’s arms and fingers were like lead as he grabbed weakly at the hand above his mouth. The doors slowly opened up as Karna gave up his struggle. 

 

 

“Would you like something to eat?”

Karna stared down at his hands. Black was scrolling through the man’s phone, humming as he looked through the messages. He held it up as the flash went off. Karna could only assume he was sending the picture to either himself or to someone else.

“No? Well, then we should start the discussion-” Black didn’t wait for a response, he simply placed a paper down on the small table between them- “I would like you to sign this.”

“...What is this?”

“Simply a written agreement that you will sign that gives me free access to my son.”

“He’s not your son.”

Black’s smile strained. This argument against him was getting old. Karna and Arjuna had been using it for years. Even when they knew better. Black, personally, blamed Arjuna. His twin was so rude. So rude and selfish. So rude, selfish, and greedy. Keeping him away from his own son, he really was some kind of sadist. 

“I remember very clearly you rather willingly let me in.”

There’s a cold rage in Karna’s eyes. “I let Arjuna in. You snuck in.”

“Kekeke...sure, sure.”

The phone in his hand dinged loudly. It nearly gave Karna a heart attack. Black typed in the passcode with the care of a five-year-old. He turned the phone around so Karna could look at the messages on the screen. He was texting Arjuna. 

“My brother seems so worried about you. He’s even called that boss of yours directly. I suppose we should hurry this up.”

He pushed the paper towards Karna. The phone is still turned towards him, so the rapid messages coming in are fully visible. The black pen might as well be red. If he signed his name it would be like signing away his son in his blood. Karna may have been exaggerating, but nothing ever felt normal around this man. 

Karna picked up the pen, grasping the cap in his other hand. He snapped the writing utensil and reached for the paper. He tore a large chunk from it, making it completely useless. Black watched with a smile on his face. 

The air was silent between them. Black ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. Karna assumed that this had been the end of his plan. Karna had been wrong. 

Hands jetted out to grab him by his ears and slammed him down on the table. The hard smack against the wood was enough to cause Karna a horrible headache. When he smacked the table a second time, the headache was becoming less of a worry. Something was ringing in his ears as his head was slammed down into the table a third time. He blinked rapidly as his vision started to go out again. He tried to push himself up weakly with his mind swimming around. However, the fourth hit proved one too many for his head.

 

“What the hell did you do?”

“Me? Well not much. Really, he was being rather rude.”

Arjuna sighed heavily through his nose. He was going to kill Black. He was going to do it. He would happily take a life sentence to deal with this insanity. 

“Well, when he’s better, tell him I’m willing to rediscuss. Instead of full custody, I’ll only ask for a particle.”

The dead air filled the space the voice once filled. Had he not been in a hospital with an unconscious Karna, Arjuna would have slammed the phone down onto the end table. Instead, he calmly put the phone away in his pocket. He needed to stay calm. He couldn’t freak out in front of their kids. 

Arjuna looked towards the corner of his eye. Nitya was sitting just out of view with Swarna. The younger was trying to stop his elder from pacing a hole into the floor. Arjuna closed his eyes and shook his head. As much as he hated to admit it, Nitya was looking more like him by the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where was i going with this


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _If someone had asked what his name was nearly 30 years ago, Black would never have said Krishn. He had no reason to after all. He was, quite happily at that, Arjuna Kaunteya. Of course, now he wasn’t. He was Krishn Kaunteya. Krishn ‘Black’ Kaunteya, the twin to Arjuna Kaunteya. The lesser of the two. The spare. Well, Arjuna had been the spare originally. But then they were switched. Arjuna had become Krishn and Krishn became Arjuna. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where am i even going with this story this started as a joke

If someone had asked what his name was nearly 30 years ago, Black would never have said Krishn. He had no reason to after all. He was, quite happily at that, Arjuna Kaunteya. Of course, now he wasn’t. He was Krishn Kaunteya. Krishn ‘Black’ Kaunteya, the twin to Arjuna Kaunteya. The lesser of the two. The spare. Well, Arjuna had been the spare originally. But then they were switched. Arjuna had become Krishn and Krishn became Arjuna. 

Or, perhaps it was easier to say everyone else switched them. Expect Krishn never forgot. 

 

 

When they were young he– Arjuna, and his twin– Krishn were the youngest of their mother Kunti. And, simultaneous a sense of joy and unrelenting pressure to her. Her relatives had high hopes for the elder twin. Krishn was simply a spare part in their eyes. When he was older, he had heard they assume he was a sort of reincarnation of her first child that never took a proper breath. Born on the same day that the child died according to them. He thought that made things all the worse for their mother. 

Kunti poured everything into Arjuna. He remembered that well. Anything he wanted she got within a second. The relatives dotted on him as if they had nothing better to do. Krishn typically found the second-best of everything shoved his way. If Arjuna got bored of something, Krishn got. Yudhisthira and Bhima dotted on them both, but he could recall them being geared by the relatives to pay more attention to him. Anything she did suddenly meant Kunti had to empty her own wishes for the relatives’ want of the perfect kid. Arjuna was supposed to be that kid. The second version of the original child was taken into account. 

Then, there had been an accident. He– Arjuna, had cracked his head open after falling off a picnic table. The surgery didn’t have a single complication and the relatives praised him more than the doctors. But, shortly after, he had entered a state of complications. His head felt as if he was in constant pain and nothing helped him hold his attention. Had they waited a few weeks, he would have returned to normal. Obviously there would be recovery time after having his head stitched back together. But to the relatives, judging as Kunti did her best to help lessen the pain for her son, decided this was a sign of failure. 

They hadn’t been kind about their opinions towards his situation. They started to blame his mother for his lack of quick recovery. They mocked her care of his ailments. They brought up her old wounds again, and again, and again, and again, and again— and their mother snapped. She pulled Krishn from his bed and smiled proudly to them all as the boy stood stiff under her hands. The relatives never gave much care to him, neither had anyone else save their brothers and their mother when the relatives weren’t around. Their mother’s stained smile mixed with the bags under her eyes and the premature wrinkles across her face. She was ignoring Arjuna for the first time in his life. 

“This is Arjuna, you see? He’s been recovered this whole time. That one there, that’s Krishn. Arjuna is up and about. See? See?”

It was that moment Krishn became Arjuna, and Arjuna became Krishn. He was now the spare.

 

 

The first sign of the change was like a sledgehammer to him. When he returned to school, his friends didn’t appear to notice him. He was no longer Arjuna, his brother was. And so, everything was exchanged. He would watch his brother be nearly overwhelmed with interactions with people who not a week before didn’t have much else but vague disinterest in. It was jarring. He was second-best instead for once. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was third best technically. 

While Karna was three years older than the two of them, he had always seen the boy as his rival. During a school competition, despite the different grade levels, they had matched their scores. This was what started the rivalry. Part rivalry, part something else. If you had asked him it was only natural that they would end up together. To anyone else, it could be argued he had some strange idea of romance even as a child. Before his accident, he had gotten the boy to promise something to him. 

As time went on, his brother grew more comfortable with his new role, and he resigned himself to his. He had attempted early on to get Karna to believe he was really Arjuna but the boy simply didn’t believe him. Looking back, it made sense. To Karna– to everyone, he wasn’t Arjuna anymore. He was Krishn now. 

He had resigned himself to his fate soon after. He thought if his mother still believed he was Arjuna in private, he would have some sense of stability. But—

“Mommy? It’s me. It’s Juna. I’m right here. Mommy? Mom...my?”

—It became clear she had replaced him as well. 

 

As time went on, Krishn, Black, had taken up the role of the undesired and secondary twin rather well. He wouldn’t get in trouble because simply, no one cared. He wasn’t Arjuna. It never left the back of Black’s mind, however. He remembered he was the original Arjuna. Even if his twin had forgotten that; he almost didn’t blame him. Suddenly being liked and having people want to be around you and being flooded with praise and gifts would make anyone content with their new role. He mused to himself that the whole thing was so overwhelming to his brother that he blocked out his past simply so he could enjoy it somehow. It was almost enjoyable. Except.

His promise was given to his brother. 

That annoyed him to no end. He silently hoped that Karna would realize the switch and go to him instead of his brother. But, as he watched them cut the large cake as the family around them watched as well, he realized he had even lost _everything_. He forced a smile on his face- like the one he remembered his mother gave when she grabbed his brother as if he was a lifeline, and congratulated them. 

And so, right then and there, he decided. He would simply steal back everything that rightfully belonged to him. Starting with Karna. 

 

 

Black looked over the video feed as he nibbled on his apple slice. There was a feeling that pooled in his stomach when Karna was in the hospital. In his defense, he hadn’t meant to land the man in hospital. Just shake him up, he was pissed after all. But to look at it in any other perspective expect his, it was the best if he was never around Karna in any capacity. The last couple of decades proved he was obsessing. He still was. To him, he was the victim of his brother. His brother was why he acted up. That was simply his view. 

Karna had recovered well. His post-concussion syndrome hadn’t stayed long and he was up and about in no time. He found he quite enjoyed watching Karna sleep. He chuckled darkly to himself, he thought he sounded like a creeper now. 

He grabbed another apple slice and paused. He thought of what he could do. He had blown a number of chances to get what he wanted back. The first’s reason for failure was simply he had no idea how to care for a baby, so he returned Nitya to his brother and Karna planning on taking him when he was older instead. That was proving more and more difficult. He considered just kidnapping him on a school trip or something, but then he had to consider what to do with Karna. He rubbed his head. It hurt. 

 

 

“Hey, Teagan.”

Teagan looked up from his journal and by extension, the small collection of bones gathered on the table of the cafe. Swarna gulped down his drink as he tried to forget how the bones were slick with red earlier. He took a bite from his meal before he continued. 

“Nitya took a piece of breakfast sausage again.”

“Again? Isn’t it like the...50th or something time this year?”

“72nd.”

The boy across from him laughed. He laughed as he spun a small bone between his fingers like a pen. Swarna had a true rare ability with his memory. Whatever he was told, whatever he saw, whatever he touched he would remember with the most extensive details. It was something that Teagan found amazing. Even he would fail to recall the small things that Swarna remembered as if it was the simple thing that everyone could recollect. 

“How curious, didn’t it happen every day this week already?”

“I think he’s trying something again.”

“He is?” Teagan put down his journal and brought his hands together. He looked like a detective as he bent closer to him as if what was to be said would slip past him if he didn’t. Swarna took another bite of his meal.

“Father got a call this morning. He was talking to someone just outside the kitchen. Nitya scratched his plate with his knife.”

“Sounds like he is,” he smiled brightly, “What’s going to happen?”

Swarna stabbed his fork into the flan his friend had ordered for him. He stared at it with the same intensity Teagan was looking at him. He looked up to meet the other’s gaze. 

“Father’s going to meet him, again.”

 

 

Karna sat across from Black in the nearly empty cafe. They were in the back, but there were enough employees around to counteract the lack of other patrons. At least he hoped so. Black took a sip of his coffee, staring at the wall as he did so. 

“What do you want.”

“Hm, do I really need to repeat myself so much?”

The man narrowed his eyes at him. Black chuckled and held up his hands. “Kidding, kidding.”

“What do you want, Krishn?”

“Well right now, I’d like you to stop calling me that.”

“Fine. Blac-”

“No, not that either.”

“Then what?”

He smiled, “It would be nice to be called Arjuna again.”

Karna stared blankly. His brain racked itself to try and find some lie in that statement. His almost sixth sense for this sort of thing didn’t react. He couldn’t find a lie in it. He simply continued to stare.

His hands were brought closer to the center and intertwined with the other man’s. A calm smile was on his face as Karna gazed blankly. Silence filled the air.

“Do you not believe me?”

Karna is silent.

“Arjuna had surgery when he was young, right? So he would have a scar on the back of his head right?” 

Karna hesitated but nodded. 

His hands are brought up and spread apart. He can feel the hair between his fingers as he’s blindly guided to the back. The hands move his own to the scalp. He can feel the very faint remnants of a scar.

“Do you believe me now?”

He jerked his hands away from the man. He pushed himself out of the booth and started towards the door. He ignored the man’s voice when he called out to him. 

 

 

Karna closed the door to his house behind him. His husband walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Karna shrugged away from the hand and eyed him. His husband raised an eyebrow and asked what happened.

“Are you Arjuna?”

“Wha? Of course I am. Who else would I be?”

 

 

He wasn’t lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i did just pull that on all you readers

**Author's Note:**

> So Nitya was made by D8ONO and named by me, Swarna was made by me and named by D8ONO. Fitting isn’t it?


End file.
